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Craig Fahle leaving WDET for Detroit Land Bank Authority

After seven years hosting the weekday talk show that’s the local programming backbone on WDET 101.9 FM, Craig Fahle is leaving the Detroit public radio station to become director of public affairs and senior adviser for the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

Fahle, 47, has hosted the “Craig Fahle Show” since 2007, and since last year also has been co-general manager of the station. His final show is scheduled for Aug. 8.

In his new position at the land bank, he’ll report to Rick Wiener, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s chief of staff, who was appointed by Mayor Mike Duggan in January as the blight-fighting agency's executive director.

“I will be involved in strategic planning for the direction of the department, not simply a spokesperson,” Fahle told Crain’s this morning.

“Craig is going to be a great asset to the community over at the Land Bank,” Duggan said in a statement this evening. “He understands exactly the importance of our auction and how it and other Land Bank programs are going to transform neighborhoods across Detroit. He also brings more than just his skills as a professional communicator to his new role. Craig will play an important role in the future direction the Land Bank takes.”

Fahle’s show has emerged as an influential media platform for discussion of Detroit, garnering awards and praise for Fahle from industry watchers such as Columbia Journalism Review.

He said he’s leaving radio because it’s a job that will allow him to be involved in revitalizing the city in a different way. He said the city approached him about the position.

“I've been talking about ways to improve the quality of life in the city, especially the neighborhoods for a long time. It's a really unique opportunity to actually get a chance to be directly involved in figuring this out,” he said. “It’s an honor to be asked to do this, and it seemed like a chance to serve in a way I haven’t been able to before. It certainly wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one that my wife and I felt I had to make. I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe we can make a difference.”

He’s paid $100,000 annually by WDET, according to Wayne State University, which holds the station’s license and provides it free space on campus.

Fahle said he’ll “make about the same” at the land bank.

The station is still determining what it will put on the air to fill his talk show’s time slots. The live talk show is actually two shows: from 10 a.m. to noon and then 7 to 9 p.m.

Fahle, whose award-winning show tackles Detroit and metro area issues, is a regular speaker and panel moderator, including at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference, and often contributes to National Public Radio programs.

In August 2013, he was named co-general manager, to oversee the station’s news and talk editorial direction, with Michelle Srbinovich, who is in charge of business affairs.

They jointly replaced J. Mikel Ellcessor, who left for another job.

The university said it would “leave the door open” for Fahle if he wants to return to the station.

“We are delighted for him, and that he’s been recognized as such an important and influential person, and that WDET had, as well,” said Michael Wright, WSU’s vice president of marketing communications who oversees the radio station as part of his department. “He’s made it very clear he’s not leaving WDET lightly.”

In the interim after Fahle leaves, Srbinovich will be the full general manager while the university conducts a review of the station’s needs, Wright said.

“We’ll examine what are the needs for the management of WDET,” he said, while praising Srbinovich’s oversight of the station’s business functions.

“For the moment, Michelle is in the driver’s seat,” he said.

Fahle has spent his entire media career in radio.

He attended Western Michigan University and then Southfield-based Specs Howard School of Media Arts. It was while studying at Specs Howard that he secured an internship with WDET.

He covered the state Capitol for the Michigan Public Radio network starting in 1994, and was hired by WDET as a reporter in 1996.

Fahle was WDET’s local host of “Morning Edition” for nine years before leaving to work at public radio station WFAE in Charlotte, N.C.

He returned in 2007 to host his talk show.

At the land bank, he said, he’ll be involved in strategic discussions in additional to being the agency’s top spokesman.

The land bank was created in 2009 by the city, with approval from the state, to buy and manage houses in foreclosure because of property taxes.

A land bank, under state law, has the ability to clear titles and buy, sell, demolish or rehabilitate derelict properties. Industrial and commercial parcels funneled through the land bank are automatically eligible for brownfield tax credits.

Land banks are considered crucial in the quest to return tax-reverted or derelict properties to productive use — a topic from time to time on Fahle’s show. Detroit reportedly has more than 84,000 blighted or nearly blighted structures and vacant lots.

A seven-member board appointed by the mayor and City Council oversees the land bank, which auctions properties online at BuildingDetroit.org.

Since it began auctioning homes earlier this year, the Detroit Land Bank sold about 100 homes, allowing the public to bid on properties from cottages in East English Village to sprawling four-bedroom houses in West Boston-Edison.

The “Neighbors Wanted” program has drawn nearly $1.5 million in bids, with an average price of $17,000 per property. That’s significantly above the city’s median home price, which hovers around $11,000.

The online auction of houses owned by the land bank is part of Detroit's efforts to eradicate blight and stabilize neighborhoods. The city wants to sell the houses to people willing to quickly fix them up.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. this month said that it has launched a $5.5 million program with Liberty Bank in Detroit to provide home restoration loans and down payment assistance for those buying houses in Detroit through the Detroit Land Bank Authority’s property auctions.

The program is part of $100 million in loans and grants that Chase announced in May to support economic development in the city over five years.